Family
by KatiKat
Summary: Ryo is convinced that he is not giving Bikky all the boy deserves...


**Family**  
  
by KatiKat  
  
"... and they have this huge estate with lotsa..." Bikky went on and on with his praising of the Spencer estate, marvelling at the expensive house for what seemed like hours now. The young boy was sitting at the kitchen table, head propped in his hands, a dreamy look in his eyes.  
  
Ryo was standing at the stove, mixing their dinner with a wooden spoon and with every word of his step-son, his heart sank lower and lower in his chest. Was this how Bikky really felt? He spoke with such excitement about his rich friend and his expensive house that when Ryo looked around their poor apartment, he felt incredibly unworthy and low.  
  
He gripped the wooden spoon tightly, then whispered, his eyes glued to the brown sauce he had heated up for the second time this week already. "Do you miss it?"  
  
The quietly spoken words cut through Bikky´s tirade, stopping him in mid-word. "Huh?" he asked and blinked in confusion. "Miss what?"  
  
"Money, expensive clothes, a big house... that sort of stuff..." Ryo said, his back still turned to Bikky.  
  
Bikky squirmed in his seat, then rubbed his nose nervously. "Ryo..."  
  
But his step-father wouldn´t let him finish. Ryo whirled around, abandoning the unalluring looking meal. "Because if you do..." His voice broke. "If you do, I could... I could maybe change jobs. Find one, where they would be paying me more. Maybe some security firm or something like that, you know?"  
  
Bikky sat back and looked at him with something achingly similar to shock written on his face. "You would... you would do that?" he asked quietly, his eyes wide. "But you love being a cop!"  
  
Ryo nodded. "I... I would. I´m sorry that I can´t offer you more. You deserve something better than this." He waved his arm around their spotless, but pretty simply decorated apartment.  
  
Bikky was silent for a very long time, his eyelashes lowered, his leg jiggling nervously. "I don´t want anything more," he answered finally, his voice hoarse and when he raised his eyes, they were completely serious. "You gave up more than enough for me already."  
  
Ryo moved closer. "Bikky..."  
  
"Do you think I don´t know?" the boy asked harshly. "I know that you want to be with Dee, to spend more time with him." He looked down again and scratched at the top of the table with his nail. "I still think that the jerk doesn´t deserve you, but... he loves you, everybody can see that. And then there is me," his voice won a clear bitter note. "Hanging in the background all the time." Bikky looked at his step-father, his eyes for once void of the gleam of cockiness. "All the time, I have to think, how much more you could be without me-"  
  
"Don´t say that!" Ryo cried out, touching the blond boy´s shoulder.  
  
"-and have the feeling as if I should somehow repay you, you know?" Bikky finished, his voice unsure and very young.  
  
Ryo squeezed the boy´s shoulder tightly again and when he spoke, his voice was raw with emotion. "I don´t want anything from you, just to be there. That´s more than enough. You´re my family."  
  
Bikky nodded, his blond pony tail flipping up and down. "That´s how I feel, too!" He looked the half-Japanese man in the eyes and held them when he spoke firmly. "So no talking about money or giving up your job ever again, okay? I like our lives the way they are."  
  
Ryo smiled and nodded, a stinging sensation hiding behind his eyes. Bikky answered him with a big grin.  
  
Suddenly the dark-skinned boy wrinkled his nose and sniffed loudly. "Is something burning?"  
  
"Our dinner!" Ryo cried out, his eyes growing large. He raced back to the stove, cut off the gas, then looked unhappily at the black remains of the second heat-up. Deeming not only the meal, but the pot unsalvagable, he decided to throw it out as soon as the whole thing cooled down. Setting the apartment on fire was the last thing he needed.  
  
"So, no ´unrecognizable brown stuff´ for dinner?" Bikky asked as he peered into the pot.  
  
Ryo sighed. "Obviously not."  
  
Bikky grinned. "Do you think your jerk would invite us for pizza?" he asked, his eyes twinkling merrily.  
  
"Don´t know. But I could ask..." Ryo offered, trying not to sound too pleased with seeing his partner again so soon.  
  
"Do so. And in the meantime, I will go and try to think up some new insults I could throw in his face. I love to see him turn red as clouds of steam rise from his ears."  
  
"Bikky!" Ryo warned his step-son, but when the blond boy disappered in his room, a pleased smile settled on the cop´s face.  
  
Once again, everything was okay in their household.  
  
The End


End file.
